Harrington on Hold 'em Quotes

“All serious poker players try to minimize their tells, obviously. There are a couple ways to go about this. One is the robotic approch: where your face becomes a mask and your voice a monotone, at least while the hand is being played. . . . The other is the manic method, where you affect a whole bunch of tics, twitches, and expressions, and mix them up with a river of insane babble. The idea is to overwhelm your opponents with clues, so they can't sort out what's going on. This approach can be effective, but for normal people it's hard to pull off. (If you've spent part of your life in an institution, this method may come naturally.)”
― Dan Harrington, Harrington on Hold 'em: Expert Strategy for No-Limit Tournaments, Volume I: Strategic Play

“Ace-king is a fine hand. Ace-queen is a little weaker, but still good. With ace-jack, you're already sliding rapidly down a slippery slope. With ace-ten, you've slid down the slope, fallen off the cliff, and lie in wreckage at the bottom with hands like ace-five and ace-six.”
― Dan Harrington, Harrington on Hold 'em: Expert Strategy for No-Limit Tournaments, Volume I: Strategic Play

“At a tight table with a full complement of players, you need to assume that bets mean pretty much what they're supposed to mean.”
― Dan Harrington, Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play

“Checking shows weakness, and is best used when you think that a bet on fourth street will prompt a fold, but a check, showing weakness or uncertainty, will prompt a call on fifth street when your bet gets interpreted as a steal attempt. This strategy is also best used when you have position on your opponent”
― Dan Harrington, Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play

“probing bets to be a little smaller than my continuation bets, since I'm starting from a weaker position. (It was my opponent, rather than me, who took the lead in the hand.) Anywhere from 30 percent to 50 percent of the pot is a good range.”
― Dan Harrington, Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play

“For a continuation bet to be a profitable move, the amount of the bet has to be carefully chosen in comparison to the pot. In essence, you are hoping to buy the pot right now. If you overpay, you'll lose too much money when your opponent calls with a hand better than yours. If you underpay, you'll be offering your opponent correct pot odds to stick around with a drawing hand. Neither situation is good, so the exact amount of the bet is very important.”
― Dan Harrington, Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play

“You have only a limited amount of time in tournaments to make money before the blinds devour you, so put the whip to your genuinely good hands, and let them carry you home. Hand 5-14 Situation: A major tournament, an hour or so into play. You're in first position, and behind you is a random mix of loose and tight players. Your”
― Dan Harrington, Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play

“Fooling around with marginal hands is just a tool for the players who knows how to let a hand go when he gets in trouble (which will often be the case!).”
― Dan Harrington, Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play

“But there are enough weak players in the early rounds of tournaments that it's not a bad strategy to see a few cheap flops with marginal hands, just to see if you can catch something and maybe double up.”
― Dan Harrington, Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play